It is never wise
to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Even as recently as five years ago, it would have been impossible for most folks to envision a world without all the creature comforts we have become accustomed to!

Now we know how precarious the world economy is … that ordinary folks can have their world’s turned upside on a dime! That bubbles bursting on Wall Street can wreak havoc closer to home 🙁

Folks spent so much time worrying about that darned millennium that they lost sight of the fact that spiraling prices for what we once thought of as essential services could cause so much grief.

So how can we protect ourselves? Is there an app for that? Of course not! What we can do is borrow a page from the past so that if the worst happens we can still try to live in dignity. People lived without electricity and cable and the Internet and even cars for centuries, eh?

Why this guide was written
The romantic in me would like to think that in a pinch, everyone would collectively rise to the occasion. After all, look at all the outpouring of support that we saw after the Haiti earthquakes, eh? But my inner realist is more inclined to believe that no matter what happens, people will be people! Some will struggle to share with everyone while others will grasp whatever opportunities that they can.

The one thing that we CAN depend on is that difficulties do not always bring out the best in people! For instance, after 9/11, horrible things happened to Muslims! How did that happen? Mob mentality is how 🙁 Fear aggression is not species specific, eh?

Personally I do not think that if there is ever is a cataclysm that it will be caused by a big terrorist attack! If I was a betting gal, I would guesstimate that if the shit ever does hit the fan, it will be as a direct result of the frightening amount of clout carried by the world central bankers. Although analysts have been paying close attention and continually commenting on it, for some reason most folks do not lose any sleep over the slippery slope called quantitative easing … which is a fancier way to say “printing money”

Why is that a problem? Wasn’t it meant to fix the problems caused when the global economy was circling the drain in 2008? Of course it was! The problem is that this approach is so new and untested, so that not even the experts are really sure what the consequences will be! What will happen when they stop? No one really knows that either 🙁

We do know … from what has happened in Cypress … that there might be other things safer than money in the bank. Can you just imagine waking up one morning and finding that your government had dipped into your private bank account to rescue your bank? That there very likely will not be bank bailouts such as we saw last time?

Interesting note for Canadians: “The government proposes to implement a bail-in regime … designed to ensure that, in the unlikely event that a systemically important bank depletes its capital, the bank can be recapitalized and returned to viability,” says Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s March 21 budget, on page 144

Does that mean that the world is going to come to an end soon? Nope … but to paraphrase the old song … we could very live to see the end of the world as we know it. Now I do not know about you, but I could lead a full and complete life without cable and the Internet … or even a land line for that matter! But what about electricity and all the other bits we have come to think of as essential?

I am not the kind of person who sits up at night and frets about this! I have not signed up for a survivalist community either! But I do think about these things and believe all sensible people should too.

At the end of the day, I will be very happy if I never need to used my little survival plan! In the meantime, I sleep better at night for having one, eh?